Weakness brings you farther than your strength

“Admit you are weak!” I heard that little voice in my head after I managed simple email last week and the output was miscommunication. What do you think would be your response to this little inner voice? What to do now? In such situations after you`ve realized that you did something wrong some thoughts goes around in your heads like: “Share your fault.”, “No one will trust me now.”, ”Admit you did it.” but also “Think of cover story.”, “Cover it up.” In such situations our brain starts to find already known shortcuts. We are in the fear modus now.

We appear on some place, where we do not feel secure and which is for us foreign, unknown and distant. In such hard situations we try to find the best way out according to our experience and to our position and situation we are in. I have learned one thing on the way: My weakness may bring me farther than my current strengths. My personal statement after that incident was pure clear: “I find my strenght in admitting my own weakness.”

All bad things we do, do have also consequences. I felt bad about what I have caused, broken trust with my close colleagues and with the managers. But. I was fully aware of one thing. It is just up to myself if I let this issue consume me or if I accept my weakness, learn from and take it as the best lesson I could ever take. I spend couple days thinking about it.

I would like to encourage you with some empowering thoughts about our weaknesses and why we should always take our weakness as the best opportunity for our growth.

1) Stop digging the hole.

In the moment you realise, you are aware of some of your weaknesses, or if you did something wrong, stop doing it, stop doing it now. Open up. Let your guard down. The worsest thing what you can do is to go on with.

2) Do not cover them up.

Shortcomings become the elephant in the room. Right? If you go on with, you create fake reality, which is heavy to maintain. This relates to the previous point. Speak the truth here and now and it becomes your past, lie and it becomes your future.

3) Share your faults.

We all have faults. And blind spots around our faults. Admiting your fault means also that you share it. Shared fault becomes on the first place lighter. And you should not assume that people will reject you. They may be relieved to hear you admit you are not perfect. You are real for them. Learn how to share your story.

4) We all faced obstacles.

Not hiding a secret is a relief. You know it. Everyone is unique and everyone does have specific obstacles.

5) Find a mentor.

It helps to talk with someone who has “been there” to guide us. You share your fault with others by finding people who can fill talent gaps who you can learn from. Work diaries offer you a new perspective on ourselves, and what we need to improve.

The first step toward change is Awareness, the second step is Acceptance. Change begins in our minds not outside of it. That weight lifted allows us to focus on our strengths. We are not comfortable in our skin until we know ourselves.

Our Bad Habits

We all have bad habits, right? We can see these as our weaknesses and these are inseparable part of ourselves. Have you already realised that? Like it or not it is our daily reality. We often do not notice our bad habits at all.

After we admit we do have some bad habits we try to uncover the real secret of breaking them. The real problem with bad habits is that they become harmful after we are aware of.

The first step to transform bad habit to good habits is to Notice we do have this bad habit. And this is the most difficult part, or this take the most of our personal energy and effort to admit it to ourselves. Good thing about this is that we do not go on autopilot, right? At least something positive about admitting a bad habit.

If you go on with the first step, so we recognized one particular habit, we become also familiar with the triggers and about the habit operations. And different states of our mind affects our triggers.
In the moment we are able to recognize these states of mind and how these states impact us, we can better track our habits.

Under which condition does the habit appear?

What emotions are connected to the triggers of that particular habit?

Are there some meta-patterns or starters I am aware of?

Awareness and mindfull approach (mindfulness) helps us notice the invisible parts of our mental life.
Without this particular step, there can not be the second one: Change it. Get rid of it. How could you change a bad habit, if you would not become fully aware of?

Your bad habit will be always replaced by another good habit. So it is up to us, what response we will have in the moment we recognize the patterns. This is how we learn, this is how we grow. No one is perfect.

Success comes from change and that includes also being aware of our weaknesses and of changing our bad habits.

What is you opinion? What are you most excited about? Share your opinion with others in the comments below the article. If you liked the article, please share it!

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My name is Jaromir Prusa (@nacesteskoucem), I am dealing with professional coaching, lectoring and professional networking. I particularly specialize in executive coaching, facilitation council and professional business networking. You can contact me (LinkedIn profil), rightHERE.